It is common practise in the art of service vehicles to equip a cargo space or a back space of an automotive vehicle with for example cupboards, tool holders, shelves or other module units. This is usually made in a separate step after the vehicle has been manufactured, i.e. the equipping of the vehicle in question is made separately from the manufacturing. Before the vehicle is equipped with specialised equipment, usually the cargo space of the vehicle is provided with a floor, usually made of wood, but the floor might also be made of for example an artificial, plastic material. The floor is usually loosely placed on the floor or fastened to the floor of the cargo space by fasteners, for example, screws which are screwed into the underlying floor or connected to a fastener, for example a ring fastener which is permanently installed in the cargo or back space of the service vehicle. This floor functions as a good support to work, stand and walk upon and is also used as an anchor plate for the module units.
The module unit or a module system, comprising several module units, is often not only attached to the underlying floor but is mostly also at least partly attached to the wall and the purpose is to counteract that the unit tips, for example, in a turn. During retardation of the vehicle the module system or the module unit may, if not securely attached, move forward with a large force and which in a serious scenario may break through into the driver cabin and thereby even cause personal injuries.
Usually a floor is individually made for a specific vehicle model, i.e. the floor is adapted to the length and the width of the vehicle.
The ever increasing demand on flexible and quick installation of module systems are also important requirements. Usually the customer wants to change the working equipment, depending on what kind of work he/she has to do. So instead of replacing equipment one by one, it is desirable that a whole module unit or an entire module system could be changed, which saves time and the customer will always know that he/she has the right equipment with him. Hence, the module system has to be easy to connect and disconnect to the floor.
One example of such a floor system is disclosed in EP1894774, of the present applicant, which discloses a load securing system, for a cargo space in an automotive vehicle. At least two rails are fixable along the cargo space, wherein one of said rails is held by one or more fixing means connectable to respective ring fasteners of the service vehicle and the other rail is held as well by one or more fixing means connectable to respective ring fasteners, and said rails are connected to each other by a bridging element in a space between said rails.
However, there is still a need for a more flexible solution which can be used for all kind of back spaces and cargo spaces of a service vehicle and which is easy and quick to install, safe and yet flexible in order to enable securing various sizes and different shapes of module units.